


Track 6

by Quettaser



Category: Game of Thrones RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bands, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quettaser/pseuds/Quettaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Good second albums are impossible, Sophie knows. Or, at least, enough people have told her that in the past few months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Track 6

**Author's Note:**

  * For [botherd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/botherd/gifts).



> This story was inspired by [this picture](http://instagram.com/p/q5XxKjHw_t/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=photo). I mean, wouldn't you want to listen to [this band](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/36400000/Game-of-Thrones-image-game-of-thrones-36492354-610-611.png)? I know I would.
> 
> Thanks to S. for letting me yell at her when I was stuck, which was all the time.

Sophie’s sitting in the makeup chair on location at the album cover shoot when she finally gets cornered by Jay-the-reporter. He’s from Rolling Stone and he's been following the band around for almost a week. Most of the time, he’s been talking to Pedro or Natalie or just sitting in the nearest corner typing on his laptop or talking on the phone. It must finally be Sophie’s turn to get interviewed.

"Second album almost ready, huh?" he says. "Hope you beat the curse."

She replies, "Thanks." Good second albums are impossible, Sophie knows. Or, at least, enough people have told her that in the past few months. It's part of why Sophie has been obsessively listening to the new master tracks, searching for every little imperfection. She knows there's something wrong with the sixth track and she just can't figure it out.

“So I know you guys always gets asked how you met," says Jay, breaking into Sophie's running thoughts, "since there’s such a big age difference in the band.”

“Maisie introduced us,” Sophie says, keeping her face still for Madge-the-makeup-artist.

“Right," replies Jay. "But how did _you_ meet everyone?”

Sophie sighs and settles further into the chair. “Maisie and I met when we were hanging out in cafes for open mics. I was writing my own songs and lugging my keyboard around. She’d been in a ton of bands since she was twelve and already knew everyone. I convinced her to try her first espresso, so we were basically instant friends.”

Sophie has to close her eyes for Madge to finish working on her face, which makes it easier for her to pretend that Jay isn't there. So, of course he ruins it by talking. “What about Pedro?”

“Pedro was always around with his different bands. I don’t remember when we first talked to each other. Maisie must have introduced us at a Defiant Spear show.” Sophie smiles at the memory of those shows. They were all in dim, sweaty rooms and Sophie had marveled at how Maisie seemed completely at ease muscling her way through the crowd. “After Pedro left that band, he was looking for something to do where he wasn't the frontman. And by that time, Natalie and Maisie were already talking about starting a new band, so Maisie just put us all together.”

"Open," Madge says, waiting for Sophie to open her eyes to start sweeping on eyeliner under her eyes.

“And Natalie? You met her last?” prods Jay.

Sophie can't nod, so she says, "Yeah. She was the singer for an all-girl new wave cover band that only played like three times ever. She was dressed like Debbie Harry. It was amazing."

Jay nods along and asks Sophie a few more questions before Madge declares her done and shoos her along to get her hair done. Thankfully, Jay doesn't follow her to the other side of the prep tent.

Sophie's settling into her chair in front of Abbie-the-hair-person when Maisie dashes over. "Oh my god, Sophie. You _have_ to see Nat's new hair. You're gonna cry, it's gorgeous."

Maisie gestures to her left and Sophie twists in her chair to see Natalie walking into the tent. She's already in her cover shoot outfit, tight black pants, killer heels and a scaly top. Her hair is long and swept to one side, only as Natalie gets closer, Sophie realizes that one side of Natalie's head has been shaved.

"Holy shit," Sophie says before she can stop herself. Natalie is grinning and twirling a strand of her remaining hair around a finger as she stands next to Maisie. "That looks so badass."

"I thought it would really help sell the murder angle of the cover concept," says Natalie, smirking. She shrugs and adds, "Also I just wanted a big change. Something really dramatic."

"It's so punk rock," Sophie says, using her fingers to brush back hair on one side of her head and looking in the mirror, imagining what she would look like with such an extreme haircut. "What if I wanted one too?"

Maisie and Natalie turn to look at Sophie's reflection in the mirror. "If I had my electric shears with me, I could do it right now," says Abbie, helping Sophie pull back her hair.

Sophie hums and bites her lip. "Maybe that's a little _too_ dramatic for me."

"I could braid it back, just on this side," Abbie says. She smooths back Sophie's hair and uses her finger to draw out where the braid would sit.

"Oh, that would look great," Maisie says, turning back around to Sophie again. Natalie nods.

Sophie says, "Okay, do it." Abbie reaches around her to grab a comb and some clips and gets to work on Sophie's hair.

Later, once Sophie's changed into her ridiculous and wonderful jumpsuit, she's standing next to Natalie while the photographer is doing his last minute prep. Pedro is getting his hair artfully tousled one last time by Abbie and Maisie is sitting in a chair to minimize her time in heels.

Natalie links her arm with Sophie's and leans into her. "Second album, you excited?" Natalie asks, gently swinging Sophie's arm.

Sophie nods and ignores the way her skin tingles up and down her side where Natalie presses against her. "Something's wrong with six, though. It still doesn't seem right. I don't want to play it at the listening party tomorrow, it's not ready."

Natalie squeezes her arm. "You're obsessing because you're nervous. Six sounds fine. Look at this," she says, gesturing with their linked arms at the vista that will serve as the background of their album cover. "This is way better than the last cover shoot," Natalie continues and Sophie laughs at the memory. They had spent a day in Pedro's friend's basement, which doubled as their practice space, trying to come up with a good photo to use as their album cover. They had tried artistically piling up their instruments, standing around dispassionately, standing around dispassionately while holding lamps, and even actually playing their instruments. Every picture looked terrible and they ended up only using text on the cover. But that was all back before they got signed to a label and anyone outside their circle of friends had heard their music.

"True, true," Sophie says. She squeezes Natalie's arm back and turns to smile at her.

Which is when Jay turns up next to them, asking about the photoshoot concept. "What look are you guy going for here?"

"We want it to look like we might fashionably murder Pedro," says Natalie.

"Is that, uh, a theme of the album?"

"For sure," Natalie says. "Also a general theme in our lives, insofar as we always want to murder Pedro."

"He's just too adorable for us to go through with it for real," Sophie adds, emphatically sighing.

Jay nods and they're spared any more conversation as the photographer's assistant tells everyone that they're ready to start the shoot.

The next day is agony for Sophie as the listening party for press and label brass is fast approaching. She plays track six on a loop and even pulls up all the old scratch tracks on her laptop, hoping she can hear where the song stopped being exactly what she imagined in her head and turned into something else. By the afternoon, she thinks she might have gone insane and is sure she's going to have to tell the rest of the band that they have to pull the song from the listening party.

She has her headphones in and is trying to get her hair done up for the event when Natalie knocks on Sophie's hotel room door. Or at least, Sophie assumes that's what happened. She only realizes Natalie's at the door when her phone buzzes with a text.

_Let me in._

Sophie takes off her headphones and goes to let Natalie into the room.

"Hey," Natalie says as the door shuts behind her. "I've run out of ways to distract myself before the party. Please tell me you have something for me to do before I completely lose it."

"I'm not doing much better," says Sophie, turning to the mirror. "I've been trying to do my hair for the last half hour and totally failing."

"What do you want to do?" Natalie asks, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at Sophie in the mirror.

"I kinda want to do my hair like I had it yesterday for the photoshoot."

Natalie's face lights up and she smiles. "Totally possible. Bring me your brush and come sit." She taps her foot on the floor in front of her. "I can do a great french braid."

Sophie sits cross-legged on the floor between Natalie's feet and hands her brush up into Natalie's hand. The steady movement of the brush through Sophie's hair is soothing and for the first time in a while, Sophie can feel herself relaxing.

"You wearing the black dress tonight?" Natalie asks, quietly.

"Yeah."

"Nice. You'll look smoking." Sophie doesn't have to look up into the mirror to know that Natalie is smiling. It's the same small smile she has when she finally nails a tough vocal line in the booth or sharing a secret. It's Sophie's favorite.

Sophie also doesn't have to look in the mirror to suspect she might be blushing.

Natalie strokes her fingers through Sophie's hair, gathering sections for the braid. "What kind of article do you think Jay is gonna write? Do you think we argued enough in front of him to make it interesting? Or is just going to be a boring slog?"

"Eugh, let's not talk about Jay."

"Hey, you're not the one he's been talking to about post-new wave synth music all week." Sophie makes a grossed out face and Natalie catches her eye in the mirror, nods, and mouths, "Oh, yeah."

"Has he asked you about what the album sounds like yet?" Natalie says after a few minutes of quiet, her fingers still gently combing through Sophie's hair, even though Sophie is sure she must have finished the braid by now.

"No, why? Has he asked you?"

"Ugh, like seven times."

Sophie tips her head back to look up at Natalie, catching the end of her eye roll. Natalie moves so that her hands cupping Sophie's head under the curve of her ears. "What did you tell him?" Sophie asks.

"That it sounds like a very sharp stiletto heel slowly puncturing a man's worthless heart," Natalie says with a grin. "With a beat you can dance to."

"I do like the sound of that," Sophie says, tilting her head back up. Natalie's fingers graze the back of Sophie's neck as she moves. Sophie resists the urge to shiver and avoids looking at their reflection in the mirror, not sure that she wants to know what Natalie's expression is. Or for that matter, what Sophie might _want_ it to be.

Her eyes fall on her headphones instead. "I still think we should drop track six tonight," she says. Natalie sighs above her and then moves down to sit on the floor in front of Sophie.

"Hey," she says, cupping Sophie's face with her hands, "Track six is a gorgeous, fucked up love song. It's perfect, the album's perfect, you're perfect. Stop. Worrying." Natalie's face is serious, but not stern. There's a warmth there, the same warmth Sophie normally sees in her secret smile.

"Nat-"

"Stop. There is no second album curse, you didn't fuck this up. You wrote a goddamn stunning album and I wouldn't change a single thing about it. Got me?"

Sophie nods and Natalie's fingers trace the line of her jaw. For a moment, it feels like Natalie might lean in and kiss her and Sophie finds that she's disappointed when it doesn't happen.

Instead, Natalie leans back and pats Sophie's knee before getting up and saying, "I need to go get ready. Thanks for distracting me, Soph."

"Thanks for doing my hair," Sophie replies.

At the door, Natalie stops and turns around and says, "Anytime."

Sophie stands still for a few moments, trying to just breathe and not freak out about any of the things that have freak out potential. She catches her reflection in the mirror. Her hair looks great. Unable to actually stave off her impending freak out, Sophie leaves her room and goes to the only place she knows she can freak out in safety.

"Mais, I think I want to make out with Nat," Sophie says, pushing past Maisie into her hotel room. Maisie's clearly working on her makeup, but Sophie just keeps pacing back forth.

"Duh, what's new?" Maisie says, going back to sit in front of her makeup mirror. When Sophie's only response is her agitated pacing, Maisie looks up again. "Wait, you had no idea? Oh man. You need to sit down because I think your latent bisexual crush might hit you real hard in a second."

Sophie sits down on the bed and curls up with her knees close to her chest. She rests her chin on her knee and tries to rationalize. "Well, anyone would have a crush on Natalie, right? She's gorgeous, and smart, and funny. And she does this cute thing when she's really concentrating where she sticks out just the tip of her tongue-"

"Yeah," interrupts Maisie. "You like her, Soph."

"But do I want to _date_ her?" asks Sophie, mostly to herself. What if she makes a mistake? If she's wrong about how she feels? Maybe she doesn't really want to be with Natalie. That would ruin the band and her friendship. Sophie knows that losing the friendship would be worse.

On the other hand, what if she's right and never does anything about it? Spending years doing nothing but pining wouldn't exactly be great for their friendship either.

"Hey," says Maisie, pulling Sophie out of her own thoughts. "What brought all this on? Why are you freaking out about this now?"

It takes Sophie a moment to figure out how to say it. "She called track six a love song, said it was perfect and then I thought she was going to kiss me, but she didn't."

"Well, it is a love song, isn't it?"

"What? No," says Sophie. "Well, maybe. I mean, it's more about longing for- Oh my god, it _is_ a love song." Sophie had always wanted the track to be dark and sinister, something that matched the tone of the album, but she never thought that she had nailed it.

"Yeah, a really messed up one," says Maisie. "It's great."

"Thanks," says Sophie, automatically. She can't resist smiling. "I think I _do_ totally want to make out with her."

" _Thank you_ ," Maisie says. She waggles her eyebrows at Sophie "You should do that tonight, by the way. Find a dark corner away from the press and go to town."

"Oh, shit. I should go get ready," Sohpie says as she uncurls and hops off the bed. Maisie gives her a thumbs up as Sophie dashes out the door.

Later, at the party, the band is milling around in the kitchen, trying not to get in the way off the staff and waiting to be introduced. PR wanted them to make a big entrance, but that meant nervously sharing a bottle or two of wine in anticipation.

Maisie and Pedro are busy instagramming and Sophie has exhausted twitter. She leans on the wall next to Natalie.

"Still nervous?" Natalie asks, tilting her body towards Sophie.

"Not as much," Sophie says. "Things are a lot clearer now."

"Good," says Natalie, and Sophie almost sure that she can see a hint of a blush.

Sophie starts to say, "Nat, I think that-" when she gets interrupted by Stacy from PR telling them it's time to go.

The restaurant they've rented is packed and not for the first time, Sophie can't believe that this is actually her job. There are plenty of camera flashes when they walk out into the main space. Natalie and Pedro are introducing the album for the crowd, but Sophie's focused on the four chairs they'll be sitting in later for questions after the listening section of the party. She tunes back in as Natalie finishes, "We're proud to present to you, for the first time, The Crossbows' new album, Vivisected."

Everyone claps around their drinks and phones while the opening notes to the first track plays. 

"So," starts Sophie, inching closer to Natalie. She puts her hand on Natalie's arm, and even though she knows that it's a bad idea to be doing this in front of a ton of press, she really can't wait any longer. "What if I said I was willing to give this a shot?"

Natalie's eyes dart over to Sophie before they turn back to the crowd that are either watching them or their phone screens. She leans into Sophie's touch and replies, "Figured me out, huh?" Her smile is soft and small.

Sophie grins as she takes another drink of her wine and slides her fingers down to intertwine with Natalie's.

Sophie's phone buzzes in her other hand. It takes her a minute to juggle her drink and phone without letting go of Natalie's hand. She ends up downing her wine and giving the empty glass to a passing server.

 _KISS HER ON HER FACE!!!_ reads the text from Maisie, along with a few suggestive emojis. When Sophie looks back up from her phone, Maisie is giving her two thumbs up and emphatically mouthing, "Go for it."

As the album plays on, the crowd begins to mill around more and Sophie finds herself being pulled towards the back of the room. Natalie manages to find a dark corner where they're wedged between some greenery and a weird wall treatment but they're mostly hidden from the rest of the room.

"Hey," Natalie says, turning to face Sophie and letting go of her hand to trace the line of the braid in Sophie's hair.

"Hey," answers Sophie. She can't help but lean in and mirror Natalie, running her fingers over the short, buzzed hair on Natalie's head.

"It's not fair that you're taller than me when I'm wearing giant heels," Natalie says, and Sophie can just barely hear her over the music. The heavy chords of track six start to play and it takes all of Sophie's concentration not to giggle at the circumstances.

Except then Natalie is putting her other hand on Sophie's waist and that is very much the only thing she can concentrate on. "You know we can go as slow as you want, right," Natalie starts, but Sophie just goes ahead and kisses her anyway.

Natalie's lips are soft and she slowly pulls Sophie closer, until Sophie suddenly realizes that they're pressed together and she makes a small noise in the back of her throat. Natalie pulls away slightly to grin at her, before continuing to kiss her, cupping Sophie's cheek. 

Sophie's kissed a lot of people before. It's just what happens when you spend a lot of your late teenage years touring in a band, there are always people willing to make out with you. This kiss feels different, it feels like it means a lot more than just a few hours in the back of a club or an uncomfortable hook up in the back of a van.

Sometime around track eleven, Sophie and Natalie manage to pull themselves away from each other and find Maisie and Pedro in the midst of the crowd.

Maisie takes one look at them and yells over the music, "Ha! I knew it!" She turns to Pedro. "Pay up, buster."

"Are you kidding me?" Pedro says. "There is no proof that they didn't hook up before tonight. I don't owe you shit."

"Look at their faces, Pascal, and tell me that isn't some 'I just made out with my crush for the first time' face happening."

Sophie and Natalie dissolve into giggles while Pedro makes a dismissive noise and continues to argue with Maisie.

Through her laughter, Natalie asks, "Second album, are you ready?"

"More than ever," Sophie replies.


End file.
